Teaching Forms

[Bret Hinds]

What is your best way of teaching forms to white belts? All the best in the arts

 

[exile]

Well, my approach is probably pretty conventional. My ultimate ambition for my students is that they will learn the forms as the `texts' from which to derive hard, street-effective self-defense techniques rooted in sound, robust strategic principles. So I prefer not to teach them the hyungs `bottom up', as an assembly of separate, atomic kihon movements; instead I teach them subsequences of the hyungs, usually four or so, and when they put these all together they have the hyungs, but they also have the sense that each hyung corresponds to a diverse technique set with advice, so to speak, encoded in the hyung on how to deal with a grab, a punch to the face, a knee in the groin and so on—all in the same hyung.

The hardest part is teaching the pivots. That's very slow going and dicey!

 

[Bret Hinds]

I guess I should be more detailed in the question;Do you teach starting with one movement at a time or do you show three or more moves at a time?Do you show the meaning of each movement as you go or do you let them learn the movements then tell them? Do you have them fight a make belive person to learn the movements? Do you show them the form then teach them? Do you start them faceing the same starting point each time untill they learn the movements?Do you tell them a story the learn the movements? ETC? All the best in the arts

 

[Kennedy_Shogen_Ryu]

The way I teach them is:
Start with the opening stance. Perform the first technique. Start again. Perform the first two techniques. Start again. Perform the first three techniques. Start again. Etc etc. Sounds simple I know, but it seems to work.
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[exile]

I guess I should be more detailed in the question;Do you teach starting with one movement at a time or do you show three or more moves at a time?

Well, this is what I was trying to get at in my first reply. I teach them subsequences which represent what on my analysis of the forms is a `minimal combat sequence'—a sequence of movements whose corresponding interpretation as a sequence of combat moves goes from the fight initiation to the incapacitation of the attacker. So to get concrete, take Kicho Il Jang. I interpret the sequence

(i) ready position, preparatory to a 90º turn into a left front stance/down block;
(ii) 90º turn into a left front stance/down block with chambering retraction of the right fist;
(iii) movement into right front stance/middle lunge punch with chambering retraction of the left fist...

as such a `minimal combat sequence', with attacker and defender starting off face-to-face and the attack initated by a righthand wrist grab by the attacker, to the defender's right wrist, arm or shirtfront, and the corresponding response

(i)' the defender covers the attacker's wrist with his own right fist, or reverses the wrist grab—this is one of the very earliest SD techs we teach them—and in either case, simultaneously (a) twists the captured wrist counterclockwise, and (b) turns quickly counterclockwise pulling on the wrist—this is the concealed meaning of the apparent presentation of the defenders left side to the the attacker at the outside of the form (something that would be suicidal to do in a street confrontation, obviously)...

(ii)' followed by simultaneously (c) driving the left forearm against the attacker's now forcibly extended right arm just above the elbow (the lower part of the `chambering' phase of the `down block'), (d) hikite of the trapped fist by the defender's `chamberinging retraction' of the right fist (pulling the attackers right fist into a maximally extended positon to give the defender's arm pin on the attacker maximum leverage and trapping the attacker in position) and projection of the defender's full body weight forward into the pin via the front-stance movement, forcibly driving the attacker's upper body down and exposing their lowered head to the defender's upcoming counterattack.

Having driven the attacker into a lowered position via the arm pin described, the defender (e) quickly moves the left arm from its pinning position to near the defender's right ear and lowers it in hammerfist strike or knifehand to major targets on the attacker's head: the carotid sinus or larynx. The downcoming strike can be subdivided at the defender's discretion into (e1) a spearhand elbow strike to the attacker's face (eyes are a good target) and (e2) the payoff hand strike to the selected target.

(iii)' A smooth muchimi shift of the striking left hand to a grab on the attacker's ear/hair/collar is immediately followed by a simultaneous (f)hikite retraction of the left fist to pull the injured attacker in and around and (g) a right-hand strike (maybe a fist, but I think a palm-heel strike is sounder) to the attacker's face with the full weight of the defender's body moving into a right front stance.

By this point, the confrontation should be effectively over (the blows must be delivered rapidly and with significant force, accurately placed, of course). So this three-move sequence has an internal logic to it that makes it useful to teach as a minimal combat episode. When I teach Kicho Il Jang, I therefore start with this sequence.

However, the actual logic of the sequence doesn't end there; in principle, the 180º that correspnds to move (iv) and appears to merely set up a repetition of the same sequence on the other side is, on its most effective combat interpretation, something more than that: it's part of a throw which follows a muchimi transfer of the right hand's attacking role in (iii)' to a hold which plays together with the sharp pivot in the 180º rotation to unbalance the now very damaged attacker and set up the finale. On that scenario, the effective combat sequence doesn't end until move (v) on the righthand side of embusen line of the form. The problem is, pivoting is a tricky enough skill for beginners that I'd rather teach that separately and drill them on it so that they get the feel of a balanced, rapid reversal of orientation using the ball of their pivoting foot, which usually takes a few class to `get'. So instead of teaching the whole thing as I described it just now, I just take them from (i) to (iii) as I indicated above, and add in the followup throwing and subsequent techs later.

Do you show the meaning of each movement as you go or do you let them learn the movements then tell them?

They see the whole sequence and learn them as a smooth continuous flow of movement first. But I assure them that this is no choreographed dance with aggressive movements, and that they'll soon see what the strategy and tactics for defense are which underlie the structure of the sequence.

Do you have them fight a make belive person to learn the movements? Do you show them the form then teach them?

In reverse order: I usually get them to learn the four or five subsequences of the form that correspond to what I've called `minimal combat episodes', and put have them put them together into the full form. I then get a volunteer to be uke, and to initiate an attack along one of the common lines that the form teaches a defense for. In very slow motion, I show them the fighting techs that the defender uses and how uke, noncompliant and aggressive as s/he is, has very little choice in what happens once the defender begins his/her counterattack. I then have uke go back to the group, and I carry out the same sequence of moves that I just used on uke. And at that point, they see that what I'm doing is exactly the sequence of moves in the first subsequence of the form they've learned. This is where the light comes on—you can see the recognition of the SD techs I've demonstrated as being the image of the corresponding movements in that part of the hyung.

Do you start them faceing the same starting point each time untill they learn the movements?

Pretty much. It helps to minimize the number of variables that change in the separate stages of the performance

Do you tell them a story the learn the movements?

Not usually, but I do try to talk them through it for the first while.

So in essence, I teach them (i)–(iii), then (iv)–(vi), then .... –(xx) based on my parsing of the whole hyung into these minimal combat episodes; then I do the demo with uke to show them (i)'–(iii)', at which point they realize what the point of this part of the hyung is; then we do (iv)'–(vi)' the same way, etc. The crucial linchpin of this whole approach is getting them first to internalize the movements (i)–(iii), so that when they see (i)'–(iii)', especially the demo with the now `invisible' uke, they immediately identify what they're seeing, the effective SD movements that have been demo'd on uke, with the hyung movements they've learned to perform. Once they can make that identification, their view of hyungs as covert self-defense instruction manuals, to be decoded and applied, becomes fixed along the right lines.

Does this address the points you're interested?

 

[Kacey]

It depends in part on the student's learning style - but in general, I will teach the individual movements in line drills, and then once the student can do each move individually, I will start giving them combinations of movements that are the same as the combinations in the pattern. Once they have that down, then I teach them the pattern progressively, meaning they start in the chun-bi for the pattern, and then do one move; then go back to chun-bi and do 2 moves; then go back to chun-bi and do 3 moves... and so on.

For some students, they do better when they learn the entire pattern and then go back and polish it; for others, they do better when they learn a few moves at a time correctly and add others as they get the first ones right. For white belts, I usually add a few moves at a time, so as not to overload them. For other ranks, it depends on the pattern (some repeat more than others) and on the student's learning style.

 

[IcemanSK]

It depends in part on the student's learning style - but in general, I will teach the individual movements in line drills, and then once the student can do each move individually, I will start giving them combinations of movements that are the same as the combinations in the pattern. Once they have that down, then I teach them the pattern progressively, meaning they start in the chun-bi for the pattern, and then do one move; then go back to chun-bi and do 2 moves; then go back to chun-bi and do 3 moves... and so on.

For some students, they do better when they learn the entire pattern and then go back and polish it; for others, they do better when they learn a few moves at a time correctly and add others as they get the first ones right. For white belts, I usually add a few moves at a time, so as not to overload them. For other ranks, it depends on the pattern (some repeat more than others) and on the student's learning style.

Well said!

 

[matt.m]

For what my .02 is worth I teach piece by piece and explain what makes the piece of chong ji or tae guek il jang. I look at Tae kwon do as learning from a hapkido/judo experience.

Sorry, those are my roots, however every piece has to be done with precision and with intention. Without true understanding at the beginning then the beginning foundation is and will be weak.

Just a thought.

 

[Bret Hinds]

A Big Thank you to all that gave there 2cents worth. I was thinking of checking with some dance instructors to see if they teach dance movements the same ways? Just crazy ideas I have. Ha Ha! I use a mix of the ideas myself, all ways looking for a better way of teaching , again a big thank you to all. all the best in the arts